Navetas by Rafal Rubí

Navetas by Rafal Rubí
Coordinates	39 ° 54 '29.4 " N , 4 ° 11' 23.3" E Coordinates: 39 ° 54 '29.4 " N , 4 ° 11' 23.3" E
place	Alaior , Menorca , Balearic Islands , Spain
Emergence	1130 to 820 BC Chr.
height	113 m

The Navetas by Rafal Rubí are prehistoric ossuaries near Maó on the Balearic island of Menorca . In the late Bronze Age in megalith built Navetas were v in prätalayotischen period 1130-820. Used.

location

The Navetas are located about seven kilometers west of Maó, not far from the island's main road Me-1 to Ciutadella . They are freely accessible.

description

A naveta has an elongated horseshoe shape . Its entrance on the slightly concave front consists of large stone slabs, a monolith serves as the lintel . A narrow corridor leads to two chambers on top of each other. Navetas are megalithic tombs that were used for collective burial . They are buildings from the Bronze Age, which in Menorca is called the pretalayotic era. Their internal structure suggests that rituals were held there. The small antechamber and the perforated access plate in Rafal Rubí provide evidence of this. The dead were buried in the lower chamber. After their bodies disintegrated, the bones were collected and placed in the upper chamber, which served as the ossuary .

The upper part of the south-facing, northern naveta has collapsed. The rear part was opened in the 19th century to rescue a lost calf. In 2007 it was found that the remaining bones in the upper chamber came from at least 19 different people. One of the original six capstones is missing. Behind the entrance through the slightly concave facade there is an antechamber, from which a rectangular hole in a large stone slab (59 cm × 64 cm) leads into the interior of the naveta. The masonry of the naveta is pseudoisodomic cyclopean.

Northern Naveta
Front view
Side view
entrance
inner space
inner space

The southern, well-preserved naveta is oriented to the southwest. Their structure is very similar to that of the northern naveta. The entrance, made of three stone blocks, also initially leads into an antechamber. The rectangular access to the interior (50 cm × 70 cm) has been expanded in the past, with the stone slab broken. The false ceiling above the lower chamber consists of six stone slabs. Above the entrance and at the end of the chamber there are compartments separated by flat stone slabs at a height of 1.20 m and 1.30 m respectively. The upper chamber can be reached via the roof of the antechamber.

Southern Naveta
Front view (1888)
Front view (2016)
Side view
entrance
inner space
inner space

Excavation history

The first excavation was carried out in 1965 by Guillermo Rosselló Bordoy and Maria Lluïsa Serra (1911-1967) on the southern Naveta, with bronze objects and ceramics from the Middle Bronze Age, but also fragments of a Punic amphora and medieval Islamic ceramics were found. In the upper chamber were the bones of at least 44 people, including the skull of a woman who had been trepanned during her lifetime . In 1968 the facade of the Naveta was reconstructed and raised by two rows of stones.

The northern naveta was excavated and restored in 1977 by Guillermo Rosselló Bordoy. Although the naveta had been looted in the past, skeletal remains were found in both chambers . In 2007 it was found that the remaining bones in the upper chamber came from at least 19 different people.

Monument protection

The Navetas are now registered with the Spanish Ministry of Culture under the numbers RI-51-0003196 (South) and RI-51-0003197 (North) as archaeological monuments (Monument arqueològic) . They are among the 32 archaeological sites that Spain officially proposed on January 14, 2016 as " Talayotic Culture of Menorca " for inclusion on the UNESCO World Heritage List . The World Heritage Committee postponed the application at its 41st meeting in July 2017 and requested improvements.

Dimensions

Northern Naveta:

External length: 13.60 m
Width outside: 9.00 m
Height outside: 4.00 m
Width of the facade: 6.00 m
Height of the facade: 3.00 m
Length of the corridor: 2.20 m
Width of the corridor: 0.65 m
Corridor height: 0.70 m
Length of the lower chamber: 6.80 m
Width of the lower chamber: 2.00 m
Height of the lower chamber: 2.00 m

Southern Naveta:

External length: 13.75 m
Width outside: 8.70 m
Width of the facade: 8.00 m
Length of the corridor: 2.65 m
Width of the corridor: 0.85 m
Length of the lower chamber: 6.40 m
Width of the lower chamber: 2.40 m
Height of the lower chamber: 2.30 m
Length of the upper chamber: 8.90 m
Width of the upper chamber: 1.85 m

literature

Antoni Nicolau Martí, Elena Sintes Olives, Ricard Pla Boada, Albert Àlvarez Marsal: Talayotic Minorca . The prehistory of the island. Triangle Books, Sant Lluís 2015, ISBN 978-84-8478-640-5 , pp. 192-195 (English).

Remarks

↑ The dating is currently still controversial. The radiocarbon analysis of a sample from the upper level of the Southern naveta, which was however made after the excavation years suggests that the naveta v already to 1300th Was built. Micó therefore admits that the first navetas as early as the 14th century BC. Could come from BC. (see Antoni Nicolau Martí et al., Talayotic Minorca , 2015, p. 193 and Rafael Micó: Radiocarbon Dating and Balearic Prehistory , 2006, p. 431)

Individual evidence

^ ^A ^b Rafael Micó: Radiocarbon Dating and Balearic Prehistory: Reviewing the Periodization of the Prehistoric Sequence . In: RADIOCARBON 48, No. 3, 2006, pp. 421-434.
↑ Mark Van Strydonck: From Myotragus to Metellus . A journey into the prehistory and early history of Mallorca and Menorca. LIBRUM, Hochwald 2014, ISBN 978-3-9524038-8-4 , p. 77 (Dutch: Monumentaal en mysterieus - Reis door de prehistorie van Mallorca en Menorca . Leuwen 2002. Translated by Jürgen K. Schmitt).
↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e Talayotic Minorca , 2015, p. 194.
↑ ^a ^b ^c Rafal Rubí northern naveta on the Menorca Talayótica website, accessed on October 9, 2016.
↑ José Simón Gornés Hachero: Sociedad y cambio en Menorca: sistematización de los contextos arqueológicos de las navetas funerarias entre el 1400 y el 850 CAL ANE , Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Dissertation, 2016, Appendix 1 (PDF; 13.0 MB), P. 124 (Spanish).
↑ ^a ^b ^c Rafal Rubí southern naveta on the Menorca Talayótica website, accessed on October 9, 2015.
↑ Talayotic Minorca , 2015, p. 195.
↑ Talayotic Culture of Minorca , on the Spanish tentative list at UNESCO (English), accessed on October 28, 2017.
↑ World Heritage Committee (Ed.): List of nominations received by February 1, 2016 and for examination by the World Heritage Committee at its 41st session (2017) . (English, unesco.org [PDF; 427 kB ]).
↑ World Heritage Committee (Ed.): Decisions adopted during the 41st session of the World Heritage Committee (Krakow, 2017) . (English, unesco.org [PDF; 4.5 MB ]).
↑ ^a ^b ^c Ferran Lagarda i Mata: Es Rafal Rubí (Southern) on the website www.arqueoguia.com (English), accessed on October 26, 2017.

Web links

Commons : Navetes de Rafal Rubí - Collection of images, videos and audio files

[2] The dating is currently still controversial. The radiocarbon analysis of a sample from the upper level of the Southern naveta, which was however made after the excavation years suggests that the naveta v already to 1300th Was built. Micó therefore admits that the first navetas as early as the 14th century BC. Could come from BC. (see Antoni Nicolau Martí et al., Talayotic Minorca , 2015, p. 193 and Rafael Micó: Radiocarbon Dating and Balearic Prehistory , 2006, p. 431)

[Micó-1] A ^b Rafael Micó: Radiocarbon Dating and Balearic Prehistory: Reviewing the Periodization of the Prehistoric Sequence . In: RADIOCARBON 48, No. 3, 2006, pp. 421-434.

[3] Mark Van Strydonck: From Myotragus to Metellus . A journey into the prehistory and early history of Mallorca and Menorca. LIBRUM, Hochwald 2014, ISBN 978-3-9524038-8-4 , p. 77 (Dutch: Monumentaal en mysterieus - Reis door de prehistorie van Mallorca en Menorca . Leuwen 2002. Translated by Jürgen K. Schmitt).

[TM194-4] Talayotic Minorca , 2015, p. 194.

[MT_N-5] Rafal Rubí northern naveta on the Menorca Talayótica website, accessed on October 9, 2016.

[6] José Simón Gornés Hachero: Sociedad y cambio en Menorca: sistematización de los contextos arqueológicos de las navetas funerarias entre el 1400 y el 850 CAL ANE , Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Dissertation, 2016, Appendix 1 (PDF; 13.0 MB), P. 124 (Spanish).

[MT_S-7] Rafal Rubí southern naveta on the Menorca Talayótica website, accessed on October 9, 2015.

[TM195-8] Talayotic Minorca , 2015, p. 195.

[9] Talayotic Culture of Minorca , on the Spanish tentative list at UNESCO (English), accessed on October 28, 2017.

[10] World Heritage Committee (Ed.): List of nominations received by February 1, 2016 and for examination by the World Heritage Committee at its 41st session (2017) . (English, unesco.org [PDF; 427 kB ]).

[11] World Heritage Committee (Ed.): Decisions adopted during the 41st session of the World Heritage Committee (Krakow, 2017) . (English, unesco.org [PDF; 4.5 MB ]).

[Mata-12] Ferran Lagarda i Mata: Es Rafal Rubí (Southern) on the website www.arqueoguia.com (English), accessed on October 26, 2017.